


Honey Sponge Cake

by hummdrumlife



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 08:39:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1976364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hummdrumlife/pseuds/hummdrumlife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rintori first kiss fic, based in season 2.  Thanks for enjoying everyone! <3</p>
            </blockquote>





	Honey Sponge Cake

He catches Rin's eye at unexpected times - a flash of his hair as he turns around a corner, the sound of his voice in the midst of a crowd's cheers causing his chin to snap in that direction, his bare knees when he sits bow-legged on the floor to listen to Rin's still-awkward captain speeches. Now, as Rin hangs up a discarded towel (something he never would have done before having to think of this as _his_ team, before realizing what it means to let himself be scared of losing what he loves), there's that glimpse of pale shoulders and his gaze double-takes despite himself as Nitori, facing the opposite wall, shrugs his team jacket off and drops it on a bench. Nitori then threads his fingers together and stretches both of his arms up, unfolding his palms toward the ceiling, rising up onto his toes and wobbling a little with the effort. Rin watches the muscles shift in Nitori's lean back below his sharp shoulders and his throat dries up to dust and his neck and chest burn, and when he jerks his head away the towel is twisted and wrinkled in his grip. 

Rin exhales hard and stalks toward the locker room with the anger of repression starting to boil up to his eyes before he makes himself stop, just around the corner, and lean with a thud back against the wall. _You're not angry,_ he chants silently, closing his eyes and gritting sharp teeth. _You know you're not, it's something else. So, what, what is it. What's really wrong._

He opens his eyes up at the ceiling and his lips part as he thinks. _Nitori. Ai._ He'd always been there, right in the bunk above his head, his feet dangling off the edge, his clothes strewn about the room, his big blue eyes shining right next to his shoulder. And now it's all different, everything's changing, and it's. Alright, it's _scary_ how big of a hole he left by moving one floor away. He'd thought it would just... be okay, and it's not.

_So you want your roommate back. Is that it? You miss reliable little sidekick Nitori, always there, always right next to you, doing whatever you want. That's all._

But that's when there's a sharp squeeze in his chest that makes Rin's brow furrow. _What you want._ He imagines the tilt of Nitori's sharp chin, his thin lips, the unnaturally soft silver hair sifting through his fingers as he ruffles his hair and how much he always just wants to pause there, letting the strands run over his skin.

_What you want. What is it, you idiot. Just say it. What do you really want._

His name gets called from around the corner and Rin tenses into a flinch, shoving down the realization that was making his pulse leap into his throat. "Yo," he shouts back, gritting his teeth and then unclenching as he pushes off the wall to meet the team pool-side. _Later._

~

"Later" ends up being after practice when Rin has walked himself to the shop on the corner without realizing it and suddenly finds himself staring at rows of small cakes with delicately placed decorations, his hands shaking in his pockets and his stomach churning. There's one small yellow cake in the center, just about the size of one of his palms, and curls of red frosting trace out a filigree heart in the center, the border lined with slices of strawberry. It's exactly the kind of sentimental, romantic stupid shit that turns his stomach, that would make his lips curl and his breath huff and his nose wrinkle on any normal day, and here he is staring at this dumb little cake and starting to feel his eyes burn in the corners. 

When the shopkeeper approaches him and begins to ask in a singsong voice if she can help, Rin doesn't look up, just shoves a handful of money across the counter in the middle of her sentence and points at the cake. He doesn't let his brain talk himself out of it afterwards - he strides in double-time across the blocks back to the dorms, the fancy little box with the red bow on top cradled in both of his seemingly cosmically huge and awkward hands in front of him and his eyes wide on the pavement before his feet. _This is a terrible idea. This is so stupid._

But at the same time, Rin knows that he has to do it, because the minutes that are ticking by when he's not seeing Nitori's face light up at that little cake, when he's not feeling that flood of fantastic, uncomfortable, wonderful warmth that goes through him whenever Ai says his name, when he's not... maybe... feeling Ai's arms around his neck ( _in a hug, just a hug, a friendly grateful hug_ ) are god damn torture.

He takes the stairs in the dorm two, sometimes three at a time, his heart beating hard and his breath coming fast, and then it's just a few doors down, just there, and he knocks on the door so loud and quickly that it sounds much harsher than he means it to. Then he stands there, waiting, and his eyes are bright and his mind is blank.

Of course, he'd forgotten about one thing in this whole stupidromanticbadidea rush.

"Captain!"

Momotaro's huge eyes and grin are accompanied by his equally huge voice as he throws the door open, and Rin... panics. His mouth drops open as he quickly shoves the cake box behind his back. There's a pause where he can't figure out what the hell he's supposed to say now, but Momotaro fills the silence easily.

"What are you doing here," he crows, his interest piqued by the quick shuffle and his eyes already trying to dart over Rin's shoulder as he lifts onto his toes. "What's that? Who's it from? Let me see!"

" _No_ ," Rin barks as he backs away, his eyes narrowing. "Go away. It's not yours."

"Is it from your sister? Let me see-"

Momotaro follows Rin as he backs up, trying to duck around his back, and the two spin around each other, Rin trying to lift the box away and out of view while scrambling for a grip on Momotaro's neck so he can toss the weasel back in its cage.

"Get _off-_ "

"But what is it?! Just let me look. Can I have some? Who were you looking for?"

"Nobody, _quit-_ just-"

Rin finally lets out a grown of frustration, his teeth flashing as his fist clenches in Momotaro's shirt at last. With a wriggle and a shove, Momotaro goes flying back into the room and Rin grabs the doorknob, slamming the door shut and holding it that way. He grins and lets out a laugh of triumph.

Then he realizes that he'd gripped both of his fists.

"Senpai?"

Rin's chin jerks to the side and there's Nitori, his eyes wide and curious above the delicate dark mark on his cheek, hugging his study books to his chest. Rin's mouth opens and shuts once noiselessly before he manages to get out a word.

"Ai."

He looks with slow-motion horror at the fatal hand, the box mangled and twisted in it, the top having slid open sideways around the wrinkled bow. His other hand slides down the door as he stares.

"This..."

He can't even say it. His whole body feels suddenly so hollow that he can practically feel a desert wind whipping through his chest, and Nitori is still staring at him, and all Rin can think is that he's fucked it up just like he fucks everything up, just like he'd fucked up everything with Haru, and this could have been something new and bigger and better, this could have been _real_ for once, _he_ could have been real for once with somebody, for somebody, and not been such a colossal disappointment. 

His face wants to crumble, but he shoves the hand with the box forward anyway, his eyes trained on the ground.

Nitori starts at the sudden movement, blinking from Rin's face to what looks like a crumpled bundle of streamers in his fist. Once he realizes that it's being handed to him, he reaches out with a small sound of surprise and draws it, cupped between his palms toward his chest and away from Rin's fingers.

It's only when he sees the bow that he understands that the pile is a box and, blindly and in disbelief, he reaches up to pull one end of the bright red ribbon. The remains of the box then flutter away and display what used to be a tiny cake, two large finger prints mushed into it and several strawberries sliding through a drooping heart.

Rin's hand had fallen limply to his side when Nitori had taken the box and then he'd frozen, waiting for... something. Laughter, probably; but what he finally hears sounds nothing like it. It's more... muffled, shocked. When he looks up, he realizes what that sound was.

Nitori has his hand over his mouth to try to stop another sob from bursting through and his eyes are half welled up with tears. For a moment, Rin is just... baffled. _Tears. Because it's terrible? But it can't be **that** bad, it's just a mashed up cake. Then what-_

As he's still staring, Nitori drops the cake box onto the hallway floor and throws himself up so that his arms wrap around Rin's neck, his wet cheeks pressed against Rin's skin, and Rin catches him automatically, stumbling two steps back. That desert inside of him stops howling and his eyes widen as it's replaced with every good thing he's ever felt at once, buzzing with hope and shock and relief down to where his fingertips are digging into Nitori's ribs. It feels-

Exactly like he'd hoped it would. Rin's eyes shut into a gentle smile as he inhales, breathing him in, pressing his nose deeper into his soft hair. The little motion draws another jagged, grateful sound from Nitori. Then he pulls back from Rin with abrupt decision and traces a flurry of small, sharp kisses up his neck and across his cheek, ending with a powerfully landed kiss that makes Rin's eyes fly open again before his knees wobble and he melts into it.

 _His lips are softer than his hair_ , he thinks dizzily, just before a muffled whoop sounds from behind the door.

"Go for it, Captain!"

Momotaro's voice filters, muted, through the wood and Rin huffs through his nose before he hikes Nitori up higher with one arm and extends his other hand to cover up the peephole with a cake-covered palm. Maybe before that would have been enough to make him stop, to make him embarrassed and ashamed and angry, to make him hide. 

But he knows what he wants now.


End file.
